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Other than implied warranty of fitness, and similar "generic good will" considerations, is anyone aware of specific legislation that mandates accuracy in documentation under penalty of law? For example, a mandate that would require a software product manual or other similar document to be "absolutely perfect"--meaning, if there was an error (not threatening to the life, limb, or well-being of the user), is there some law that would require a company to essentially recall and replace the entire manual?
Despite having worked in the field as an independent contractor for a number of years, and taken various business classes at the local university on legal and regulatory issues, I have never heard of such. If anyone has, I would really appreciate it.
The issue is not the software or product itself, but rather the documentation for that product. The way it was stated to me(by a technical writer for a software company), was that every manual, and presumably every piece of documentation generated, was a "legally binding contract," and as such, had zero tolerance for errors of any type.
This is not a rhetorical question, or a lead-in to a debate; I have honestly never seen, and never seen reference to, any such notion before, except in broad, general terms that usually involve "credibility" and "customer good-will."
The issue of developers being legally accountable for their code has been mentioned briefly on other forums, with the vague statement that someday, somewhere, that might happen. The statement regarding documentation was made as if some law or regulation is already in effect that dictates what a company must do if and when an error is discovered, and what the scope of their liability is; rather important pieces of information for a technical writer documenting last week's version of the (now revised) software that ships this afternoon.
If some "legally binding contract" legislation exists, it obviously affects everyone in the documentation field. It would not take much imagination to conjure up a situation in which TW Smith is sued by Company Jones for some error. That, in turn, would imply that the fine print in an employment contract might contain such a provision or condition, and that quickie temp job to rush a product manual could result in a lawsuit down the road that could bankrupt (in a best case scenario) the writer who worked one week on a year-long project.
Any information you might have on the legal issues involved in the production of documentation (again, not the product--the product documentation) would be sincerely appreciated.
Thanks,
tekwrytr
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